The high snowfall totals this winter coupled with the late, quick thaw of the snow and ice means that the river in front of us is almost as high as we have ever seen it:

Normally the water is out beyond the furthest trees. The one that’s leaning and submerged is where we tie up our boat in the summer. Our path along the river is now covered by two or three fee of water. The water level is several feet above where it normally is. Here is the data from the U.S. geological Survey’s observation station at Auburn, Maine, about 20 miles up river from us:

The red line is the flood stage level, about 13 feet. It’s now close to 16 feet. In the past year, we haven’t see the river gage above 11 feet. You can see that the river level normally is about 4 feet. The river is flowing at about 53,000 cubic feet per second. April is usually the month of highest flow levels, but the mean for an April 17th is about 16,000 c.f.s. This is some swollen river.